7. Nicki Minaj, “Roman in Moscow”

Can an artist as omnipresent as Nicki Minaj really be said to have had an off year? Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded was a No. 1 album, but it didn’t go anywhere near its predecessor’s sales. On the other hand, this gloriously deranged throwaway — a “preview” of Reloaded that she ended up leaving off the album — encapsulates what’s great about the rapper. Minaj boasts that she didn’t bother coming up with a bridge or third verse, but what she does offer includes a hilariously bizarre conceit (her psychopathic, misogynist alter ego “Roman Zolanski” riffing on the premise of Michael Jackson’s “Stranger in Moscow”), some quadruple-lutz rhymes (“bike gear,” “nightmare,” “Buzz Lightyear,” “white hair”) and the best-ever apropos-of-nothing deployment of the term camel toe.